The Reality of the Dead
by Brooklyn1918
Summary: Steve Rogers finds himself in a confrontation with the mad titan, but after a punch to the back of the head, it could all be over. Or so steve thinks.


Steve has his hands wrapped around the golden gloved fingers, fighting with all his might to keep them from closing. If they closed than they would have half the world turn to ash, meaning that they had lost. The whole world ticked slowly by around them, muscular arms fighting to no avail to keep the arm at bay. With a whipping motion, the mad titan pulls Steve from his feet and whips him around, and lands one solid punch to the back of his head and neck. With a sickining crunch, the bones in his neck snap, severing his spinal cord. Blood pools, and blackness instantly falls in front of his vision as he crumples to the soft ground, motionless.

Steve lets out a soft groan, rubbing a hand along the back of his neck before realizing that he is lying stomach down on the floor. He pushes his hands under him and lifts himself up, entering into a standing position. Waiting for his eyes to clear of from their foggy state, he looks around, noticing that nothing but a soft white plane spans as far as he can see in any direction. There is no noise, the only light coming from far above, but expanding so that no shadows fall, not even Steve's. "Where the hell am I?" He wonders aloud. His eyes close, trying to block out the strange place, and thinking back to what happened. His fingers come up to massage his temples as he realizes that he isn't even wearing his grimy old uniform anymore. He looks down to see what looks like something he would have worn before the serum. Light brown pants held up by suspenders over a white collared shirt, with brown shoes. "What the —" his sentence is interrupted by something landing on his shoulder.

He whips around to see his team standing there. Not the avengers, no, but his TEAM, his howling commandos team. Dum Dum smiles at him, his bowler hat clutched in his fist and held over his heart. Steve stutters out their names each in turn. As he says each name, each commando that corresponded with said name gave him a smile and a salute. "Welcome back Cap. We missed you." Dernier says, as Steve's glance passes over each of them in turn, none of them looking like they aged a day over when he had last seen them. It had been 80 years, and so it felt. "How are you all here? And so young?" Steve asks without subtle confusion. "I think the real question is why YOU are here Cap." Gabe says, looking into his face. "I'm dead arnt I." He doesn't question it because he already knows it's true. That purple son of a bitch, what were the others going to do? Would they win? He hoped so. "We can't stay long Captain. We just wanted the chance to say goodbye. You didn't exactly give us the chance to." Dum Dum says, his voice sounding whispy, and like it was fading into a million miles of silence. Each of them come to put a hand on Steve's shoulder, holding it there, their bodies turning transparent. "See you soon." They all said, leaving Steve more confused than he started.

"Steve." A woman's voice comes from behind him. He whips around to see Peggy standing there, as young as when he had met her. He turned to look back at the commandos, but they had vanished into the vast white ethereal plane. He turns slowly back to Peggy, taking in her features. Her brown hair glowing in the light, falling in curls down her shoulders. Her bright red lipstick makes her entire face stand out, and makes her look as strong as she truly was. Her blue dress was thickly accented by the red hat she clutched in her hand. "I'm so sorry I'm late." Steve says moving up to her, taking her hands and pulling her close. "Well, seeing as how you crashed your airplane into the ice. I think you might have a valid excuse as to why you didn't make it." She says with a small smirk. He smiles down at her, letting her beautiful brown eyes speak to him. "I don't have much time left. I will see you soon my love, but you are not done here yet." She says, but this makes Steve question her. "What do you mean? Where is here?" She stands on her toes and presses her lips to his, and he melts into them momentarily, before his lips pass through open air.

He looks to where Peggy had been standing, thinking that this was all some sort of sick dream, trying to tell him something. "Well about damn time, you old man." The voice is strong and snarky, much like it's descendants. Steve smiles before he turns to come face to face with Howard Stark. "You couldn't have given Peg the coordinates?" He says with a playful smirk. Steve scoffs before speaking. "What, and have you miss your opportunity to try out your new little toys in the arctic? I think I'd have passed. I think I DID pass." Howard laughs, before his face turns serious. "I wanted to let you know that I think you did the right thing. I think that you were the bravest and best person I ever knew. And that I don't in any way blame you for what happened to me." Steve feels a slight weight lift from his chest, not even realizing that Howard and Maria Starks deaths had been weighing him down. "I'm sorry Howard." Steve says as his old friend gives him another smile, much sadder than before. "I know. I'll see you soon." He promised. They shake hands as Howard fades away.

A flash of silver flys past and Steve crams his broken neck to see Peitro, skidding to a halt behind him. "What, you told me to walk it off." He says noting Steve's expression. Steve smiles, and laughs lightly at the joke. "I guess I did. It's good to see you walking it off down, well, wherever we are." Looking around with a gesture of his hand. Peitro smiles and says with sadness, "thank you for taking care of Wanda. She still needs help, but I think she will be ok." Peitro nods at his own comment and looks over Steve's shoulder, raising an eyebrow, and running off in a vanishing cloud.

"Damn it punk. You went and got yourself killed without me?" Steve whips around and gives a shout. "Bucky?! How? When? I was just killed!" Steve yells out at his friend looking for an explanation. He stops, looking at how young his friend looked. He was standing in his military uniform, his hair cut to its short length, and his left arm made of flesh and bone. "Not Bucky. Well, not the full part of him anyway. Only the part of him from before everything happened. Before Hydra. I ended up here the moment they injected the modified super soldier serum into him." He explains without much detail, shoving his hands into his pockets and looking at his best friend. "So you were the part of Bucky's soul that he lost that day. Your the part of his soul that loved to laugh and have fun." The uniformed figure nodded slightly, before saying simply, "well, I won't keep you. I have to go wait for the rest of Bucky to come along, eventually. Besides, I wouldn't want to keep you waiting from who your going to see next." Steve questions, brow furrowed as Bucky's part vanishes with a sly smile.

Steve smirks, "Jerk." He looks around for who he would see next, but saw no signs of anyone else. The sent of rose water fills the air, bringing Steve back to when he was very little. There was only one person who smelled like that. Tears spring to his eyes as he turns to face his mother. Her own tears streaming out of her eyes. "Ma, I missed you." He says enveloping her in his hug. "Steven, I'm so proud of you. For all you have done." They remained locked in each other's embrace, speaking into each other's shoulders. Openly crying, they stay like that for only to short a time. "I will see you again very soon. I promise." She says as she pushes him back by the shoulders to look at him. Her blond locks, the same blond as Steve, lay flat against her back. Her blue eyes shine with tears, but her smile is still as warm as it had been when she had died. "I love you with all my heart Steven, flaws and all." He bends down to hug her again, but only grasps open air. He lets out a sob like a child, longing so desperately to have his mother back.

"Stevie." Buck says from behind him. Steve turns around to see them all standing there. He picks out Bucky, who had said his name, and standing on his right was Peggy. In the middle was his mother, and on her other side was Howard. The commandos and Peitro took up positions behind them, and one by one they all reached out with one hand. Steve took one step forward, wanting to join them, needing to join them. He wanted to stay with them. He wanted to be with the people he loved, the people who were like his family. But he couldn't move. He was being pulled back, and he could feel the broken bones in his neck mending them self's. The whole world flashed as Steve shut his eyes once more.

He opened his eyes and rolled back up into a sitting position. He looked to thanos who had a green glow around his wrist, indicating that he had just used the time stone. Steve tentatively touched the back of his head and neck, but all the bones were fixed, and he was most certainly alive. He looked down. He was back in his grimy uniform, and he wasn't sitting in the white box of death anymore. He was back in Wakanda, fighting the fight of their lives, trying to stop thanos from killing half of all life. But this isn't where Steve wanted to be.

He wanted to be home with all the people he loved.

He wanted to be back in his own time.

He wanted to be dead.


End file.
